Micromanaging boss who made employees’ lives difficult ends up regretting it immediately

Are you working under a boss who tries to monitor your every move? Well, that's a nightmare that nobody wants to face. Yet, the corporate world has many examples of such toxic bosses who know nothing better than burdening employees with unnecessary and illogical tasks. A worker (u/pugc on Reddit) had one such micromanaging boss who forced him to write daily logs of his work. The man repeatedly told his boss that such detailed reports would take most of his time, but his boss insisted that he record every small detail. However, this dull, boring, and not-so-important task turned in his favor when the boss tried to blame the employee and his team for a substantial issue at work. The story shared on Reddit has now been deleted. 

The man, working at a logistics facility, was an achiever at his work; in fact, he got promoted from team leader to shift leader within a few years. He was managing a shift of 60 workers, and his team was working so efficiently that they had outperformed others. Everything was going well until he had a new manager, who wanted to micromanage every move. Soon, the manager asked the shift leader to start writing a detailed log of how he spent his day, updating him on everything that happened. The worker tried convincing his boss against it, but nothing worked in his favor, so he began filing his daily report. He began writing about events every 30 minutes, but his boss demanded the report be more detailed and asked him to document every 15 minutes. For the first few weeks, the manager did read his daily logs, but later started ignoring them. The shift leader realized this only when he referred to the company failing a specific metric, but heard nothing from the manager. 

Once the employee was convinced that his boss wasn't reading his logs, he began mentioning things unrelated to their work. "I started adding a few tidbits of my own making. At first, it was a line telling him that if he used a certain phrase when talking to me the next week, I'd buy him a soda. He never used any of the phrases and thus never got free stuff," he recalled. Now, along with things that didn't matter, the worker was also documenting potential problems and suggesting solutions to solve them, but there was no response from his boss. As expected, the problem turned into a full-blown crisis, and the manager tried to put the blame on the shift leader and his team. After the boss was done defaming him, the worker asked if he could get a moment to respond to all the allegations. He connected his laptop to the big screen and showed everyone his daily logs, informing them how he had already alerted his boss of the problem months ago and had even suggested solutions. 

"I can safely say I've never seen a face angrier than his; he was furious!" the worker wrote, recalling his manager's reaction. When the higher-ups asked the micromanaging boss if he had anything to say in his defense, he denied it, embarrassing himself further. "Micromanager boss that was fired eventually found a new job at a lower level at another company but only lasted about a year. Five years later I saw him selling used cars in a neighboring town. Life hadn't treated him well," he concluded.

Meanwhile, reacting to the post, u/momo88852 commented, "Awesome work! His micromanagement fired back at him. He totally deserves it, as it seems he wanted to show off. Luckily, his showing off saved you." A user on Reddit, u/zumboprime, confessed, "I read this in the other sub; it's still great, especially I love how the guy was so hell-bent on keeping his power trip that he couldn't ease up and let your job be any easier and risk someone thinking he made a mistake. He tied his own rope for you."